Intel compares AMD's new Ryzen laptop naming scheme to snake oil salesmen

Daniel Sims

Posts: 1,376   +43
Staff
A hot potato: The labels on CPUs can be confusing for casual consumers, especially as both major vendors transition to new designation systems. While Intel and AMD are trying to make their processor names less ambiguous, Intel is accusing the competition of outright misdirection.

A PDF recently emerged on Intel's website accusing AMD of misleading its customers with its new laptop Ryzen naming scheme. Introduced last year, Team Red's designation for laptop processors differs from those designed for desktops. While the names contain more information than their predecessors, they can be confusing, which the company admitted earlier this year.

Currently, Intel's PDF isn't directly accessible, but Neowin and known leaker Momomo grabbed a few slides in which the company compares AMD to snake oil salesmen. The primary criticism is how the digits on the latest Ryzen CPU names carry a different meaning from their desktop counterparts.

All desktop 7000 series Ryzens use AMD's latest Zen 4 architecture. However, in the company's new laptop naming system, the seven as the label's first digit indicates that it was released in 2023. Intel criticizes how the recently released Ryzen 5 7520U uses AMD's Zen 2 (instead of Zen 4) architecture from 2019.

Team Red's detailed instructions on its new naming scheme explain that the third digit, in this case a two, specifies the architecture generation. Meanwhile, the second digit indicates the performance tier, with a five representing a Ryzen 5. The fourth and final digit differentiates between a lower or higher-end model, while the letter specifies wattage.

Thus, the 7520U is a 2023 lower-end Ryzen 5 chip using Zen 2 architecture limited to 15-28W. Unfortunately, AMD can't fit its directions onto each product's packaging, so the company devised another system highlighting Zen 4 processors with orange stickers.

Although AMD might confuse some customers, Intel's comparison won't hold water much longer. The document compares the 7520U to its Core i5 1335U, which uses Intel's current naming scheme. Starting with the launch of the laptop-centered Meteor Lake series later this month, Intel will switch to a new style that drops the well-known "I" designators. Instead, the company will label its mainstream CPUs Core 3, Core 5, and Core 7 and its higher-tier products Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9. While Intel's new labels contain less information than AMD's, they present a less drastic and potentially less confusing change.

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Intel doing Raptor Lake Refresh and not telling customers...


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AMD introducing new logo for Zen 4 to differentiate mobile CPUs...

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Intel Core Truths
 
I agree that AMD’s mobile naming scheme is misleading. But it’s pretty rich for Intel to call anyone snake oil salesmen after their entire 14th gen lineup. I can’t wait to see Gamers Nexus make their “disappointment PC 2023”, which will undoubtedly have a 14th gen Intel CPU at the center.
 
These CPUs were announced in September of last year. Nice that someone at Intel finally noticed them. Intel must be taking its competition very seriously.
 
I Seem to remember 14th gen being the same architecture as 12th gen? And 9th gen being the same architecture as 7th gen? Intel eh……. Eh…. You’re pretty known for releasing the same micro architecture again and again with tweaks only to core counts clock speeds and pricing… which is actually fine? I see no issue… but maybe ya shouldn’t diss other people over doing the same exact thing?
 
Calling AMD out this time is quite silly of Intel to be honest. Their recently released 14th gen Core processors are essentially the same as the 13th gen, with some unicorn boost clockspeed that you rarely see in real life usage. So it’s like the pot calling the kettle black here.
 
Intel isn't wrong.
The sheer fact that intel is right for once should be a major embarrassment for AMD. And the fact that zen 2, zen 3, zen 3+, AND zen 4, alongside two different versions of vega (which has been put out to pasture for drivers, yay) and rDNA2 all in a single generation is just insane.

Intel may rebrand stuff but I cant think of a time they had multiple arches like this. Even with 12th gen the pentiums got the alder lake upgrade alongside the core CPUs.
Calling AMD out this time is quite silly of Intel to be honest. Their recently released 14th gen Core processors are essentially the same as the 13th gen, with some unicorn boost clockspeed that you rarely see in real life usage. So it’s like the pot calling the kettle black here.
Let's not get into AMD's LONG history of Rebrandeon GPUs or renaming of the construction cores. That's snake oil, but an entirely different breed.
 
Intel may rebrand stuff but I cant think of a time they had multiple arches like this.
That's because they stagnated for a long time and new models were essentially the same with small tweaks.
Complain if you like but each Zen generation is at least meaningfully different from one another. And while I completely agree on AMD's silly naming - at least there's decoder for that. Where as with Intel im not sure a mathematician can decode this mess:

Intel® Processor U300
Intel® Celeron® Processor J6412
Intel® Core™ i5-1340P Processor
Intel® Core™ i5-13600HRE Processor
Intel® Core™ i9-12900TE Processor
Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8462Y+ Processor
Intel® Xeon® E-2278GEL Processor
Intel® Xeon® W-11155MRE Processor
Intel® Xeon® D-1713NTE Processor
Intel® Core Ultra 7 164U
Intel® Core 5 Ultra 1003H
 
I love the AMD chips compared to Intel (despite having just got a Coffee Lake desktop, and having a Tiger Lake laptop at present.) But Intel's not wrong. Intel CPUs, the first 1 digit (and 2 digits past the 9th gen chip) tell you at a glance what generation the chip is, and they have not been recycling older chip generations while increasing that first 1/2 digits.

That said... Intel now has those Atom-based "E-cores", so you'll have to pay attention to find out if your like 16-core CPU is a monster (like 14 P-Cores and 2 E-Cores) or if it's like 14 E-Cores and 2 P-Cores (which would probably only be equivalent to 4-6 P-Cores total.)
 
The sheer fact that intel is right for once should be a major embarrassment for AMD. And the fact that zen 2, zen 3, zen 3+, AND zen 4, alongside two different versions of vega (which has been put out to pasture for drivers, yay) and rDNA2 all in a single generation is just insane.
Not arguing that this is an entirely confusing collection of architectures, but in terms of GPU arch it's not two versions of Vega and RDNA 2 but one version of Vega, RDNA 2 and RDNA 3.
 
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